NY Journal # 9 & 10

New York Journal # 9
--------------------------------------
BLOG ENTRY
Ok, a few things more I really meant to mention in the last journal, so hopefully, this will be a short one -SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TICKETS:I need help getting tickets! Or you need to come to NYC and see SNL! or both! or... please, a humble, favor-request? - This Month ONLY! can you send an email to snltickets@nbc.com and ask for tickets? If you cant come to NYC to use them, I'd love to take 'em off your hands if you win. I have a few emails in to them myself but the more (tickets for more shows) the merrier.To enter the ticket lottery for the 2004-2005 season, send one email to snltickets@nbc.com in the month of August only.

JOURNAL ENTRY
WASHINGTON SQ PARK update: An infrequently recurring WSPk character resurfaced yesterday to shock me into literal jaw dropping horror at the sight of... well, some:
*Background: 30something black male, hip hop style, facial hair that runs from sideburn to sideburn under his chin, giving him a slightly Cowardly Lion appearance
*Mental state = imbalanced but seemingly harmlessly so.
*Quirks: fascination with things floating in the WSPk fountain and/or throwing objects that lie around IN TO the fountain. - I saw the shocker yesterday out of the corner of my eye, my brain not actually comprehending at first - no, not wanting to BELIEVE - what I had just seen. The guy had found a small, clear plastic cup lying around the fountain or in the fountain and... began to scoop water out of the fountain and as you may have guessed by now, yes... drink it.
*More Background: WSPk's fountain water - while being a historical mainstay and icon of the West Village, being calming and refreshing to sit by on hot summer days and being a requisite photo opportunity for those passing through with cameras - is home to dogs on leashes cooling off by laying in the water, the occasional dog peeing in the water, children, of course playing in and .. of course also peeing in the water, homeless guys cleaning themselves in and of course, probably peeing in the water and naive tourists, sunbathers and locals cooling themselves off in and.. who knows, maybe also peeing in the water. Needless to say, .... REALLY really needless to say - Dont Drink the Damn Water. Jesus. I wasn't the only one in shock of course. I've never seen so many other people around the circle look at each other in horror to confirm they were all seeing the same ghastly site.
FREE KAYAKING: From water you shouldn't drink to water you shouldn't drink - A few weeks ago we kayaked for free on the Hudson through: http://www.downtownboathouse.org "is an all-volunteer organization that is dedicated to providing access to the Hudson River for everyone. The Boathouse is located in the Hudson River Park.. [and].. run[s] the following free programs: walk-up public kayaking, kayak trips on the harbor, evening classes, and a youth sailing program. T'was most awesome. Out on the water, paddling about, looking at the NY skyline, watching amateur trapeze enthusiasts learning the ropes (Ha! ha. umm.. ha. get it?) at the trapeze school adjacent to the boathouse. Monstrous carnival cruise ships passing by a few hundred yards away, heck, even New Jersey looks beautiful from the water. Witnessing all of this, I said the phrase I have said on average of once a week since I moved here: "God I love this city".
GOD, I LOVE THIS CITY: This has to be another category I visit from time to time. I really DO say it about once a week, for the various giggle or goosebump inducing cool aspects of the city. Yesterday for example, just before leaving the park after seeing Water Drinker's coup de grace, storm clouds had gathered, thunderstorms had been predicted, but I wanted to believe that the arms of the weater pattern would miss us in some force field twist of good fortune. No such luck. But the beauty of the situation was, whereas in San Francisco, when rain starts, you have from 2 to 7 minutes to get under cover before it goes from sprinkling to raining. Yesterday, it went from sprinkling to cherry-sized plops of rain, thunder and lightning in no more than 3 minutes total. Twenty minutes later, it was sunny with the ground drying. An hour later, it did the same thing. Now, granted, it's never nice to unexpectedly get soaked in the rain (not that we did, we found shelter) - what IS nice is weather. real weather. There's a verse in the Bible that says: you take the good, you take the bad, you take them all and there you have the facts of life. the facts of life. Wait.. whu..? not from the.. ? ok, I'm being told that's not from the Bible. well, wherever that prophetically profound tome originated, it rings true. The facts of life, here, seem to be about extremes and/or excess, and a rapid changing through them. The weather, the number of people, buildings, subway lines, parks, neighborhoods, the plethora of food and entertainment choices. And on and on and on. Not that all other cities aren't as good but... all other cities just aren't as good.
Ok. I'm kidding...
no, I'm not.
HA! ok, really, I'm kidding.
Actually. I'm not.: )

BLOG ENTRY
NY JOURNAL # 10
------------------------------------------------
I seem to be on a writing-motivated roll here soo... read this or save it for later or... ask me to take you off of my list. No offense will be taken, no curses will be placed on you and yours.
ANOTHER REQUEST:
I have the below program on my laptop, running only when I'm not using the computer and... well, I'll copy & paste their schpiel in a sec. I highly recommend it because, well... how many chances do you get to actually help make a difference in a cure or treatment? unless you're a doctor, not much, sad to say. so here's our chance:
http://www.grid.org/download/gold/download.htm

---The United Devices Cancer Research Project is asking you to volunteer your PC to help process molecular research being conducted by the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford in England and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. To participate, you simply download a very small, no cost, non-invasive software program that works like a screensaver: it runs when your computer isn't being used, and processes research until you need your machine. Your computer never leaves your desk, and the project never interrupts your usual PC use.
---It's safe and easy
There is no cost to participate and no impact on your computer use. The project software cannot detect or transfer anything on your machine but project-specific information. It just allows your computer to screen molecules that may be developed into drugs to fight cancer. Each individual computer analyzes a few molecules and then sends the results back over the Internet for further research. This project is anticipated to be the largest computational chemistry project ever undertaken and represents a genuine hope to find a better way to fight cancer.
---The computational power to perform research of this scale is only available through the generosity of individuals like you.

THE WEATHER:
All it took was for me to talk about the extreme and excessive weather for it to completely contradict my naive generalization. Yesterday, it sprinkled lightly and consistently, for nearly the entire day. Always just hard enough to almost need an umbrella.

LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE concert:
http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/festival/
A friend who works in the area couldn't use her tickets to this massive concert on Randall's Island and gave them to me and Matt. - Randall's Island is a smallish island housing a criminal psych center, an open air concert arena and sports facilities (those go together, right?) It's accessible by footbridge at 103rd Street, Harlem but since we'd never been there, we didn't realize it was a good 40 minute walk to the concert area once on the island. Although it's only a couple hundred yards across the East River from Manhattan, crickets are all you hear once you get on the Randall's Island side. We timed our arrival (half by design, half by opportune accident) to coincide perfectly with the only band we wanted to see, Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Have Mercy, that old man puts on one damn fine, energetic concert. Matt aptly said after the show that it's exhausting just watching him perform - with his impossibly-skinny-body-meets-ultra-defined-musculature, leathery skin and 14-year-old-girl-jeans, as a physical specimen, it bordered on the grotesque to watch him except that pretty much everyone at the show was undoubtedly hoping they'll look half that healthy when they're as old as Iggy is now. Looks aside, he sounds just as good as he does on any of his early albums and quite possibly has more concert energy than he did back then.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TICKETS:
No seriously, can you email them? : ) Act now and I will even Pay You if you win and cant use your tickets! I'm 100% serious. This month only! - snltickets@nbc.com ask for four tickets please! (always ask for 4 tickets for whatever tv show you're trying to see. If you cant use the extras, stand-by's get them, so they're not going to waste)